


Tim's Favorite Oracle

by redrobinfection (ChristmasRivers)



Series: Happy Birthday, Barbara Gordon! [2]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Coffee, Fluff, Gen, happy birthday babs!, loose tie-ins to Coffee Coffee Everywhere
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-23
Updated: 2018-09-23
Packaged: 2019-07-16 05:30:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16079429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChristmasRivers/pseuds/redrobinfection
Summary: Jason stopped by earlier to shower Babs with praises and mocha-espresso cake, a wonderful birthday surprise to be sure, but now, a few hours later, Tim has made an appearance. Babs knows the drill: Tim is after that espresso cake - the little coffee-obsessed, workaholic that he is (not that she can talk much) - and he's even brought her bribes under the guise of "gifts" but... maybe she should give him a chance before she assumes he's only there for her cake.





	Tim's Favorite Oracle

“Hi, Barbara!” a voice called from the stairs.

“Hello, Timothy,” Barbara replied tonelessly over her shoulder. She already knew why Tim was here, but she’d play along for now. “It’s been awhile since you’ve come to see me in the Tower. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“I, uhhh, heard Jason stopped by to wish you a happy birthday earlier, so I thought it’d be okay for me to drop by to do the same,” he replied with a forced air of casualness as he entered the room.

“Uh huh.” Barbara turned her wheelchair away from the screens at her workstation and pinned him with an unimpressed look. “And I heard from Jason that he had work pretty hard to keep you from eating all the mocha-espresso frosting off the cake he gave me. You haven’t come, by chance, to sneak off with my cake, have you?”

Tim laughed and scrubbed at the back of his head. “I mean, if you wanted to share a slice with me… he didn’t even let me taste the frosting, so, I mean…”

Barbara intensified her glare until he picked up on the mood, hastily backtracked, and hoisted up the package he’d brought as if to shield himself. “That’s not to say… I didn’t mean… I mean, it’s your cake, I’m not gonna just steal a slice, much the less the _whole cake_ , jeez, Babs, what do you take me for?”

“A coffee addict,” she deadpanned.

Tim laughed. “I’m past all that now, I swear.”

“Uh huh.”

“I have a tightly controlled caffeine and coffee schedule, these days. But uh, I did bring you a gift” - he waggled the package - “which may include some articles containing coffee so…”

“'Some’?”

“Okay, _most_.”

Barbara turned away and shook her head, hiding a small smile. “Nope, I’m not buying into this. You came here to convince me to enable your coffee addiction, with bribes of _coffee_ no less, and you won’t even admit it.”

“But Baaaaaabs!”

“Nope.”

She worked in silence while Tim rustled and shuffled on the spot behind her. She waited. Eventually he dared to inch closer, leaned down, and spoke low tones over her shoulder. “You know, you’re my favorite Oracle, Babs. The best one I know.”

Barbara threw back her head and laughed as she spun her chair, forcing Tim to jump back. “Tim, come on! I’m the _only_ Oracle you know!”

“You’re still the best, and my favorite,” he replied with a grin _and_ a wink. Laying it on a little thick, it would seem. But this was Tim so…

Barbara shook her head stubbornly, but couldn’t keep a crooked smile off her face. “That line didn’t work for Jason and it isn’t going to work for you either.”

Tim’s jaunty grin melted into a warm, genuine smile that lit up the dim space. “Yeah, I know, but it was worth a try and worth it to make you laugh.”

She shook her head fondly and struggled with herself a moment. Finally, she sighed and reached out, making grabby hand motions. “Okay, fine, give me your ‘bribe’; I know that you know that we both share a weakness for coffee - the two of us overworking, under-sleeping idiots - so I’ll give you this one.”

“I-indeed,” he laughed, presenting the package to her with a flourish.

Barbara peeled off the purple and gold paper - where in the world had Tim gotten paper with little bats on it; did he make this himself? - and began pulling gifts out of the carefully packed box with a wry amusement that quickly turned to candid surprise, then genuine appreciation. Coffee flavored lip balm. Coffee candles. Espresso vinegar _and_ cheese. Coffee flavored meringue cookies. Packets of her favorite French roast coffee and Italian roast espresso beans. A little picture of her and Tim from some dinner at the Manor many months ago in a frame that said “You’ve bean my best friend and mentor” and was decorated with real coffee beans. It looked like Tim might have glued the beans on himself, to cover up cartoon beans printed on the frame. 

“Tim… these are so sweet. Thank you,” Barbara said, extending her arms to pull him down into a hug.

“Told you it was an actual birthday gift,” he grumbled good-naturedly into her shoulder. She giggled but waited until he pulled away to point the coffee cheese in his face accusingly.

“Yeah, but it was a bribe, too, admit it,” she told him with a knowing smile, poking him in the nose. Tim laughed and batted the cheese away.

“An offering to the all-knowing, coffee-loving Oracle,” he bantered back, with a smile. She laughed, and in that moment the last of her resolve crumbled.

“Okay, well, how about this: I’ve been up all night and I haven’t had a coffee break in _ages_ so why don’t you make us some of that espresso and I’ll see about cutting us some slices of cake?”

“Absolutely!”

So that was how they ended up in her kitchen fifteen minutes later, finishing off Jason’s mocha-espresso cake for breakfast, washing it down with cups of espresso while they chatted and watched dawn break over the city. A pleasant end to a pleasantly surprising night, she thought.

“So…” she began quietly after they’d decimated the cake and slumped back into their seats in caffeinated contentment. “Jason tells me Bruce and Alfred want me over for dinner tonight, and you, Steph and Cass want the Birds to patrol solo so we can all stay in afterwards.”

Tim sat up in his chair and set his cup down, muzzy expression fading to turn alert and hopeful. “Yeah, we were hoping you might take the night off. Steph sees - mostly hears - a lot of you on the night job, but she and Cass haven’t spent time with you outside the capes in a while so they were hoping…” He trailed off and looked up at her hesitantly. “Will you be there?”

“Yeah, I’ll be there for dinner.”

“And after?”

Barbara grinned. “I’m just waiting to hear back from the Birds. I’ll see you there?”

Tim beamed. “Definitely!”

**Author's Note:**

> My DCU tumblr sideblog is [redrobinfection](http://redrobinfection.tumblr.com/). Read, reblog and like this work on tumblr [here](http://redrobinfection.tumblr.com/post/178396429665/tims-favorite-oracle). Kudos and comments appreciated. Thanks for reading!


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